West Ham boss Graham Potter revealed Lucas Paqueta was reduced to tears by his frustration at the team’s performance against Tottenham.
But the player’s wife Maria has suggested that a two-year “nightmare” has taken its toll on the 27-year-old.
Paqueta looked distraught after he was shown a yellow card in the second half of the 1-1 draw for a foul on Mikey Moore.
The Brazilian midfielder is still awaiting the outcome of the FA hearing into allegations he deliberately got himself booked in four matches, which he denies.
In bizarre scenes at the London Stadium, Paqueta had to be consoled by Hammers skipper Jarrod Bowen and referee Michael Oliver.
Potter said: “I think he’s just a player that’s trying his absolute best and wants the situation to be better and probably got a bit frustrated with the action.
“And then you see a human being, not perfect, but I love Lucas. He’s given everything and in difficult circumstances he’s in as well. He’s given everything and he’s absolutely fine now.”
But Maria Fournier, who was at the match with their sons, later wrote on Instagram: “My husband has a posture and a strength that I admire and impresses me.
“We have been living this nightmare for two years and it is always strong.”
Tottenham went ahead in the 15th minute when Hammers defender Max Kilman had two stabs at making a pretty routine clearance, but hit Mathys Tel with both of them.
The second time Tel was able to smuggle the ball away and square it across goal, where it was missed by Aaron Cresswell leaving Wilson Odobert the simple task of finishing past Alphonse Areola.
But West Ham responded just before the half-hour mark when Bowen beat the offside trap to run on to Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s through-ball.
The Hammers skipper scampered into the penalty area, cut inside and slipped the ball through the legs of Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario at his near post.
Ange''s reaction to this afternoon''s 1-1 draw in East London 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/DCC7TFBAiI
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 4, 2025
With Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou placing all his eggs in the Europa League basket he made eight changes to rest his first-choice players for Thursday night’s semi-final second-leg trip to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt.
“I’m proud of the players’ efforts. It’s not easy making so many changes and it’s going to affect the fluency and even the rhythm of the team,” he said.
“I thought the efforts they put in today were outstanding, they were disciplined, organised. I thought we nullified their threat as well as we could and they had some decent firepower up front and I still thought we were dangerous going the other way.”
Midfielder James Maddison looks set to miss out on Thursday after undergoing a scan on the knee injury he suffered in the first leg.
“It doesn’t look great but we’re just waiting for further information,” added Postecoglou.
“We’ll just wait and see. Hopefully we’ll probably get some clarity tomorrow. It doesn’t look promising but I’ll just wait and see.”
Striker Dominic Solanke also limped off against the Norwegians but Postecoglou added: “Dom’s improving. We obviously left him out today but the medical team are pretty confident he should be right for Thursday.”
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